One Way Ticket

On County Highway M between Elcho and Highway 17 in Langlade County there is a sign pointing down a private road to “Knights Templar”. When visiting the cloister in Tomar, Portugal, a man who sounded American asked me if I was a Mason. There is a mystique concerning the Templars which is alive today. (Thus the visit to Tomar). Even Friday the 13th as associated with negativity is connected to a Friday the 13th when Pope Clement the fifth ordered the destruction and execution of the order of Templar in the year 1314. The military strength of the order was essential in enabling Portuguese kings to take areas from Moorish control and to expand the country. When the dissolution of the Templars was ordered by the pope, the powers in Portugal simply renamed the order to the Convento de Cristo. Today’s president elect of Portugal is given the title of Grand Master of the Convent. Even the famed explorer who had the school of navigation, Prince Henry the Navigator, lived in the convent of Christ and recruited knights to be part of Portuguese oceanic exploration. Thus the title “so much history, so much mystery”.